The Malaysia.QI-Meritus.Mahara team blends its cultural background with the Bahrain school students in Muharraq.
 
After  the press conference hosted in the presence of His Excellency Dato Syed Sultan Idris Ambassador of Malaysia to  the  Kingdom of Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit CEO Shaikh Salman Bin Isa AL Khalifa, and Team QI-Meritus.Mahara Chairman Raad S. Abduljawad, the only Asian team with Arabic roots in the GP2 Asia Championship responded to the invitation of the French Lycée MLF de BAHREIN - MISSION LAIQUE FRANCAISE, a school of 460 international students from 40 nations existing since 1902 in Busaiteen – Muharraq, where 45% of the students are from Arab nations.
 
The team brought a dream to the school in the form of Italy Luca Filippi’s own  GP2 Asia car. Italy Luca Filippi is one of the two drivers for MeritusMaharaGP team and also a previous GP2 winner and podium visitor at the Bahrain International Circuit. Italian Luca Filippi  won a GP2 race in Bahrain in 2007. The students looked at the Bahrain GP2 winner’s car under every angle: By now they probably know everything possible about a car, including changing the wheel,  the nose etc and the students joined in the fun for the team competition …for the most crazy “V-face”.
 
Proviseur Loic Chatton and Head teacher Pierre-Emmanuel  Girod made sure that every student  were able to get the most out of this very unusual visit  of a car at a school.  This session was run with the Bahrain International Circuit and part of the Community Work with the idea to develop  interest of the students for the 2010 Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix on coming March 12,13,14. The basic functioning of how a GP2 racing car works kept the students busy all morning and  the team’s mechanics Denny and Charlie explained non-stop about their careers in motorsport. In the end, all students from all grades came to see the car, and got photographed taken from every possible angle. More important than everything all students of the French Lycée MLF in Bahrain picked up their free pass donated by the Bahrain circuit whose representative had bought 600 free passes.
 
Since its foundation of Malaysian motorsports ambassadors’ Malaysia.QI-Meritus.Mahara has always taken a serious approach to its corporate social responsibility through its Motorsport Responsibility (MR) projects. These projects have always been related to the world of motorsport and in Manama, Questnet one of the sponsors donated t-shirts to the school and the Bahrain International Circuit distributed 600 tickets for the kids under 15 for a free visit at the track.
 
After the photo session, Peter Thompson, President and team founder of the team  and Khaleed Diab, General Manager Questnet, one of the team’s sponsor agreed to a Youth Press Conference with well planned Q&A’s from the class representatives, The questions with the idea to promote road safety initiative in Bahrain. In the end, the world of  racing is so magic that Peter Thompson and Khaleed Diab explained the passion, focus and team work  and the dedication needed for  a winning team. Many unusual  questions …what does a team owner do? what is the maximum speed of a car, What are all the buttons for on a car? What does a driver hear over the radio? How many people work on a GP2 Asia team? What are the sponsors  benefits to sponsor a team? How many hours do you spend working a day? What does the fire button do in the car? How many races a year? How is the Bahrain track? What does a driver eat and what is the special diet? Or what is the life of a pilot like? Amongst the many questions of the hour long conference.
 
 
Peter Thompson, President and team founder said: ” our job is to  to win races and that helps the sponsors to win sales for the products, As a team, we never forget to look around and introduce racing to the kids as they are the foundation of all sports. This   is an important challenge for any team and it is our daily job as a team to make the students aware of  our racing program and also how safe it is for a driver to race: Whether his carbon-fiber helmet, his seat-belts, the Hans and neck device and collar that protects the driver, the survival cell or even the car chassis, the brake systems. Everything on a car is safety oriented basically, We wanted to associate with the students from the French Lycée MLF in Bahrain and show that safety is also part of our job as a racing team.”
 
Loic Chatton Proviseur of the French Lycée Bahrain said: “A few days ahead of the third Gp2 Asia event of the season and a few weeks away from the first Grand Prix of the F1 season, I could not resist the idea to invite MalaysiaQI-MeritusMaharaGP.com, their team Principal and their sponsor to come and explain what a racing car is like. We may cheer for World Champion Michael Schumacher, but we will all go to the track proudly wearing our Questnet t-shirts. We have now turned into life-fans for the MalaysiaQI-MeritusMaharaGP.com. Let’s Filippi win again the race in Bahrain and this time for MalaysiaQI-MeritusMaharaGP.com team.”